Departing from the 1997 regional financial crisis, “Asia the Unmiraculous” investigates a transnational narrative of Asian miracle, crisis and recovery. Having conducted extensive research in Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, Rui An tracks the emergence, transmission and circulation of Asian economic futurisms in popular culture and the mainstream media - examining the external and internal demands for control of the nation-state through the leitmotif of ‘the human hand’.